Most of the earth's surface covered by water in seas and oceans. This water is believed to be the foundation of life on earth. "But the problem is, how and when the sea came here," said Ted Bergin, professor of astronomy at the University of Massachusetts.
That question might be answered after scientists found a "layer as the sea" on a comet by HIFI instrument on the Herschel Space Observatory.
That question might be answered after scientists found a "layer as the sea" on a comet by HIFI instrument on the Herschel Space Observatory.
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The Heterodyne Instrument for the Far Infrared (HIFI) on the. Herschel Space Observatory. (Picture from: http://satorchi.net/)
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Comet's collision into the newly formed Earth's oceans raises its surface. "It's a big puzzle and new findings are an important part," Bergin said last week.
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| HIFI, the Heterodyne Instrument for the Far Infrared, a high-resolution spectrograph that operates in the range of 480 to 1250 GHz in five bands and 1410 to 1910 GHz in two additional bands. (Picture from: http://www.herschel.be/) |
Together with other research teams, they believe that the ocean is just there when the earth at the age of 8 million years.
HIFI is a heterodyne instrument for the far infrared. This instrument detects as sea layer on comet Hartley-2, which passed at a distance of 700 kilometers from the spacecraft's American Space Agency (NASA), Deep Impact.
HIFI is a heterodyne instrument for the far infrared. This instrument detects as sea layer on comet Hartley-2, which passed at a distance of 700 kilometers from the spacecraft's American Space Agency (NASA), Deep Impact.
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| An artist's conception illustrates a close-up look at NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft. NASA is now evaluating future uses for this spacecraft. (Picture from: http://www.space.com/) |
Hartley-2 has been frozen in the cold in space. Comets are composed of chunks of ice and frozen carbon dioxide. The researchers found that the ice in the comet Hartley 2 has a similar chemical composition of the ocean on earth. There is a mixture of atomic hydrogen and deuterium atoms, one of the chemical isotope in heavy water. "This is the first such findings of our oceans," said Bergin.
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| Hartley-2 comet close-up photos. (Pictures from: http://mmbenya.com/) |
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| NASA's EPOXI mission spacecraft successfully flew past Comet Hartley 2 on Thursday November 4, 2010. The Deep Impact spacecraft has provided the most extensive observations of a comet ever. (Picture from: http://www.upi.com/) |
HiFi had previously been scanning the six other comets. But this tool does not find such a layer of the ocean. Astronomers suspect Hartley-2 formed much closer to Earth than any other comet in the system of six Kuiper Belt. *** [DAILYMAIL | KORAN TEMPO 3673]
